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Getting ready for NY Design Week!

2012-05-18T03:49:00Z

We've been feeling like Super Mario Brothers for the past week and a half trying to pass every level of finishing our products, taking photos of our work, editing the photos, sending out a newsletter & press releases, pack & shipping our furniture & lights so it'll get to NY in time, remembering to pack our clothes (and underwear), making sure our water bottle doesn't have any water in them when going through security, and remembering to put our shampoo, contact solution, utility knife, hammers, drill bits & screws in the checked luggage and NOT in our carry on....

It's usually stressful leading up to catching the flight, but once we're on the plane we feel we can at least relax a little being so far away from work...and instead be able to enjoy a view like this....the high altitude sunset and little itty bitty frost crystals that forms on the window...so neat.

Then we land in NY....and then it's back to frantic town all over again!! So now we're on to the next challenging level of dealing with all the logistics in New York to set up our work up in time for Noho Design District!! And this level is all about doing errands in middle of Manhattan....WITH A MINI VAN! And boy did we let loose on the horn.

It's only been our first full day in NY and we're already exhausted from all the rush and trying to get everything set up!!! Luckily there was enough adrenalin going through both of us that kept us from just passing out....

Anyway....here's what we did and some photos of our first day

11am-1pm Arrived at Zero + Maria Cornejo to scope out the space and figure out a plan of attack on how we can set up our lights, hanging chair, floor chair, side tables and plant hangers.

Lovely window display of paper cranes in Z+MC

And me (Jean) getting distracted/tempted by all the amazing beautiful Z+MC shoes & clothes.....

1pm-2pm: Went over to Heller Gallery in Meatpacking district to deliver our Nyth bowls for RAW+UNFILTERED show by AmDC. We got a little sneak preview and is totally psyched to have our works be shown amongst some amazing works there. Here's our bowls next to our table buddies, Fort Standard, who made these cast bronze candelabras!

2-4pm did some major driving around where we borrowed a 10ft ladder that we somehow fit in the mini van, then got a bunch of light bulbs at a hardware store, and went to this awesome plant called Plantworks for plants for our plant hangers.... I got to look at some AMAZING giant plants and cacti I wish I needed. I love NY for all their little mom & pop shops with the best things.

430pm We set up a mobile work station in our friend's classy mini van and illegally parked for an hour and a half just to claim a street parking spot by 6pm...yah....parking in Noho, that's the kind of fun logistics we love. I know I should be ashamed to even admit doing something as desperate as camping out in a van just to claim a parking spot...but it was TOTALLY worth it for the spot right outside the shop and that we didn't have to pay $12/hr. Wow...I'm totally starting to sound like a cheap old lady! yay!

6pm-8pm: Then for 2hrs all we were able to do is hang some Aura lights before everyone at the shop had to leave!! Despite the little progress we had, I was really happy with how the lights look in front of the amazing large scale photo of Maria's clothes by Mark Borthwick, an artist/photographer and also Maria Cornejo's husband. Talk about a super couple....seeesh!

So now....we gotta get up in butt crack of dawn to head over there and do the rest of the set up. woo hoo!!

more & more for later!

Staring Contest

2012-05-15T14:22:00Z

If you stare at our Nyth bowls long enough....you MIGHT be able to see some 3D dolphins....Give it at least 20 minutes. nooooo blinking!

Perhaps we'll organize a staring contest at RAW+UNFILTERED opening!

Red Hot Pigs!

2012-05-12T02:59:57Z

We did a custom batch of red piggies upon Bradford's (founder of FAB .com) request for their upcoming popup shop during NY Design Week starting MAY 17th!

We're so thrilled to be part of all this as well other awesome events like AmDC's Raw + Unfiltered show, and Noho Design District.

Metropolis magazine mentioned both Raw + Unfiltered and FAB's popup shop as one of the destinations to check out during NY Design Week! How exciting!

We've only made a limited quantity of these babies just for the popup so get 'em while they last!

Sneak Peak Process Shots on Sight Unseen

2012-05-07T15:44:00Z

We love process shots and apparently so does Sight Unseen!

They shared a nice post sharing some pics of our chairs in collaboration with Ashley for Noho Design District.

We've been pretty active on posting our process almost daily on our tumblr & Instagram (jeanLGstudio), so you can see more there, too!

Also the Sight Unseen post shows more sneak peak process shots of other talented friends from Iacoli & McAllister and Fort Standard... plus others talents we hope to meet like Caitlin Mociun, Makers & Brothers, Bec Brittain and more...more...more!!!

Just awesomness all around!

L&G on Craft & Culture

2012-05-07T04:39:00Z

Lots of exciting things are in the air for L&G....we're SOOOO excited to be officially part of this new online shop, Craft & Culture, that recently launched beginning of the year!

The founders of C&C (Hana & Jason), also based in Seattle (yet another awesome point for Seattle!) has a vision to create a super well-curated platform featuring self-makers, designers and artists. They're starting off with talented local artists / designers like Meghann Sommers of &C, Ashley Helvey, Elizabeth Patterson and Actual Pain...and now added, US!

We're so excited to be part of something as special as C&C. Both Hana & Jason have such a great eye and vision for the company... not only are they providing a platform for designers to sell their work, they also go an extra mile to capture the personality and work philosophy by interviewing the designers and photograph their space!

They took all these amazing photos and we're just ecstatic with how nice and professional everything looks!

....so it DOES make a difference when a pro takes photos compare to my ghetto photo taking skills! ;P

C&C will be adding plenty more new and exciting national & international designers in the coming month, so stay tuned!

Homestead on Anthology

2012-05-03T22:14:08Z

Thanks to our awesome friend Charlie (of OBJECT) our Homestead candlesticks got a nice little feature in the recent issue of Anthology!

It was a nice surprise since I got the issue literally the DAY after we had our photoshoot of our place for Anthology!! Our place is scheduled to be featured in the coming Fall issue!

I love how poetic Charlie makes them sound. :D

We're ON for NY Design Week May 18-22!!

2012-05-03T11:21:20Z

We we're incredibility excited that on top of us being able to FINALLY go check out ICFF for the first time EVER, we'll get to be in NY during the best time of the year, AAAAAAAND we'll also be part of few extremely exciting satellite events happening during design week!!

Neither Dylan & I have gone and we've only been talking about it for like....8 years...and FINALLY this year we decided that we would go for realz!!! We were just hoping to go for fun and then few opportunities came along where places was doing open calls for shows....so we figured...why not?! We might as well make a worth while trip, right??

Well, lucky for us, we're able to be part of 3 awesome events!!

1. We're extra stoked (and still can't believe) that we'll be part of NOHO Design District!! NDD is organized by the talented ladies of Sight Unseen where they coordinate & curate shows to be shown all around shops and galleries in Noho.

When we got the email from Monica and Jill that our submissions got accepted and that they'll paired us with this amazing clothing brand, Zero+Maria Cornejo, I think I might have even screamed outloud for a long time....then absolute silent with me staring at my computer screen for like another hour....just in total shock.

We just can't believe that we'll be part an all-star group and be featured along all our design crushes like Tom Dixon, Bec Brittain, Lindsey Adelmen, Jonah Takagi, Brenden Ravenhill, Tanya Aguiniga, Fort Standards, Chen Chen & Kai Williams, and companies like Roll & Hill, Areaware, The Future Perfect ...and whole a whole lot more!! I'm feeling high just thinking about all this....

So needless to say, we're MORE than ecstatic to be able to show our work at Zero+Maria Cornejo. Her work is absolutely stunning and I'm already eying up some pieces...SO TEMPTING!!!

The show will begin on MAY 18th at Zero+Maria Cornejo. More event info HERE.

2. Is another awesome show, Raw+Unfiltered, organized by Kiel Mead and head of AmDC. Last year our Cane & Able was shown at the "USE ME" show, but we weren't able to party with all the amazing talents there. So this year...we're definitely NOT going to miss out again!

Here's a sneak peak of what we're showing!

The show will open on SUNDAY MAY 21st at HELLER GALLERY. More event info HERE and to RSVP.

3. We'll be part of FAB's popup shop which will start on MAY 14th. They requested a limited batch of custom red piggy banks! Aren't they cute?!

They FAB sale will beging online. More info TBA.

We're so excited for all this!!!!!EXCLAMATION MARKS FOREVER!!!!

Balloons in the wind

2012-04-29T20:52:05Z

I forgot how fun balloons are.... :)

L&G Talks at Western ID

2012-04-27T10:11:33Z

L&G was lucky to be invited to give a talk/presentation about our work at the Western Industrial Design department in Bellingham,WA couple weeks ago!

As flattered & honored as we felt...both Dylan & I got really stressed about it...

The last time I had to put together a presentation was 7 freakin' years ago when we were students!

We didn't want the entire 45 minute talk to be a show-and-tell of our work and wanted to share more about our process and how we think and work. But going with this route, meant that we totally had to dig deep into our brains and souls about what we're about...why we do what we do....what defines us...and what drives us and keeps us going.

Of course...this always inevitably leads to us to ask even bigger questions like "why do we exist?" and "what is the meaning of life?!" and "what's the point of it all!!"

But instead of asking questions that lead to nowhere and us feeling more lost...we ended up looking for for common threads that's been consistent in how we work and operate in general.

We realized it was the simple concept of being HANDS-ON that is a really valuable process in how we design, think, explore, and engage in the physical world around us.

For both of us, we found that being hands-on is been best way to get the most out of any experience....which probably explains why I don't ever like to read instructions and tend to just jump in and start doing and would rather figure things out by trial and error.

There's really nothin that can compare to physically experiencing something and engage all our senses which actually creates muscle memories beyond our brains. It's about physically exploring and manipulating..seeing and touching...which all that enhances our memory in how we think, create, and operate.

I made this little wire hand as a little visual for the theme of the presentation.

We talked about...

how travelling really engages our sense by getting us out of our comfort zone to see & do thing differently.

how we have the tendencies to collect materials, natural or vintage findings as a way to play with physical things and figure out what to do with it.

how we use our live/work set up as a place to test our ideas and how 90% of our shelves/walls are our 3 dimensional inspirational board while trying to not make it look like we're just hoarders!

how we collaborate with people to get hands-on experiences that connect us in a different way and learn and gain new perspectives.

how our lifestyle is about using all our hands-on experiences to gather inspirations, design and make things, and figure out what works or doesn't work for us.....all through physical trial and error.

To add to the fun and to engage the students beyond just listening, we gave everyone a piece of 12" wire and ask that they play with it as if they're doodling with their hands while we give our talk.

...and secretly, it was my distraction tactic and I have to say this was the best idea ever! It took the pressure off a bit knowing they're less focused on us, but mostly I just loved all the delightful things the students end up making!

Going up to Bellingham to do the talk was a great exercise and experience for us that really forced us to get to know ourselves better. As painful as the process was... it was totally worth it to get a better understanding about what our strengths & weakness are....and embrace it all! :D

Thanks to the kids at Western for being such a good sport and listening to our nonsense!

Bloc Party at Sight Unseen

2012-04-21T17:00:00Z

Oh..it's ON.

...our Bloc necklaces on Sight Unseen Shop that is!!!